I come across an article about 美宝, American Baby. It is a term about citizenship of Chinese baby born in the US. There was a time when lots of Chinese tried to give birth in the US so the child would have American citizenship by birth. But these Chinese are not and have no intention in being US resident nor giving up their Chinese citizenship. The purpose was to get their child a de facto "dual citizenship". It was a business, probably still is.
The article is to explain the legal implications and explained in detail of the "claiming Chinese citizenship before age 18". It says that there is NO legal text mentioning about 18, claiming, nor is there any requirement to give up US "citizenship" because in Chinese legal perspective there is nothing to give up, the child is always a Chinese citizen. Here are the points and line of the legal reasoning:
- Such Child born in the US to a Chinese parent who is not US resident is Chinese citizen according to article 5 of the Citizenship Law.
- According to US law, such child is US citizen and would be given US passport.
- This effectively make the child a dual citizen.
- US law does not reject nor approve dual citizenship, meaning US simply ignore the other citizenship.
- Chinese law reject the US "citizenship" according to article 3 if the person is a Chinese citizen. The text is "中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。" This text is strictly translated to "PRC does not acknowledge that Chinese citizen has dual citizenship". It still recognize the person as full Chinese, but only reject the other citizenship as void and null. It does not revoke such person's Chinese citizenship.
- No practical implication would occur until this child is going cross the Chinese border. At this moment, the child must have a travel document. If the child uses US passport, it amounts (for China) to formally acknowledge the US citizenship therefor the person will loose the Chinese citizenship automatically. To avoid that, the person is issued a travel document by Chinese embassy. The child will use it to enter China as a Chinese citizen. It is equivalent to Taiwan Compatriot certificate avoiding acknowledging ROC passport.
- This travel document will expire at 00:00:01 of the 18th birth day, and will not be renewed.
- From this time on, the person can only enter into China with either a Chinese passport, or a US passport with a Chinese visa.
- From this time on, if the person ever used a US passport to enter China, that person is legally American citizen in China's legal perspective.
- However, if the person does not travel to China since that time, the person is still Chinese regardless what he/she does with their American passport anywhere in the rest of the world.
- After that time, the person will need to apply for a Chinese passport at the embassy if the person want to enter China without loosing the Chinese citizenship.
To summarize:
- The person is always Chinese citizen if he/she fulfils article 5.
- The American passport, citizenship has no legal bearing to the status of the person's Chinese citizenship.
- The person does NOT need to renounce his/her US citizenship, nor does China need any proof of it, because US citizenship was NEVER valid to begin with. Also because all those matters are beyond China's jurisdiction.
- The only practical action is the person must acquire Chinese passport for travelling into China after reaching age 18.
There are lots of people including reporters in news conference asking the question whether Gu Ailing has renounced her US citizenship. The question is irrelevant to begin with, therefor Gu Ailing did not give a straight answer because both "yes" and "no" implies that US citizenship is legally valid in the first place but it is not. The only straight answer is equal as saying "I never accepted US citizenship, but US government just throw it on me".
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A similar situation happened many years ago. A Chinese Uighur fugitive acquired Canadian citizenship was arrested in central Asia and deported back to China. China rejected Canada's demand for consular assistance because China regards this person as Chinese, Canadian passport meant nothing. The argument is that a Chinese person can only practically become a foreigner after he/she promptly renounce the Chinese citizenship, before that moment the foreign citizenship is null.
In both cases, the west is trying to make it like China is bending its own law for political gains, but the truth is that China is strictly enforcing the law.